Insurance Info

You may live anywhere in the United States. You can live in a desert or in a city that has no river or on the coast or near a lake. Wherever you are living, flooding can just happen whenever. Flooding is a natural disaster that human beings have no control of. In fact, floods take place in 50 states. If you’re asking the question of “Who needs home flood insurance?”, the answer is everyone does. It is important to have it and not need it that not have it but need it.

Let’s say that your home was flooded and you didn’t have insurance. You will burn a hole in your wallet just by paying for the reconstruction of your home and buying the assets that you lost. It is not expensive. The rates differ though. These depend on the kind of home owner you are as well as the risk of your area to flooding. You can even get cheap home flood insurance. You just have to know where to look. The federal law requires everyone to get insurance and that is why insurance companies can provide their customers with the home flood insurance that are right for their lifestyle and their budget. Continue reading ‘Home Flood Insurance a Necessity’ »

The definition of a flood is water overflowing from an expanse of water that will cover a large area of land that is usually dry. There are an incredible number of causes of floods, from intense rainfall from both ordinary storms, hurricanes, tropical storms and tsunamis to drainage obstructions such as breaking dams, landslides or glaciers, and even man-made causes such as overgrazing, overcultivation, improper disposal of waste, deforestation or poor water management.

Rivers or lakes that overflow their bounds or burst through levees may also cause floods. A lot of damage occurs to buildings, roads, houses, and people when water floods land. Floods are difficult to predict and tend to linger for long periods of time. Working to recover from a flood and all the related damage is an exhausting and emotional experience for most homeowners. Dealing with property damaged in a flood can be costly, even more so if it didn’t have flood insurance. Continue reading ‘Tips on Buying Insurance Cover For Floods’ »

One of the top priorities of a businessperson with a store of their own is to make sure that the store premises are insured against any chance of flood damage. This is for the simple reason that a company or individual could well risk bankruptcy just down to damage caused to stock and equipment in a warehouse or office. This is the reason why a prudent businessperson makes sure that he has insured himself against any such loss of business, by calculating the potential commercial cost of flood damage.

Many people are under the impression that it is not important to insure their businesses against flood damage, because they do not happen to be living in the vicinity of any water source, which might get flooded in the near future. However they do not take one significant matter into perspective – a flood can occur almost anywhere, and at any time. That is the reason why a good businessman needs to make sure that he does not have to bear the brunt of flood damage.

Just imagine that your office, warehouse and storefront have just been flooded, because of a burst pipe somewhere in the premises. Or the waterworks near your office decided to overflow in the direction of your warehouse, and you came back from the weekend, only to see your stored merchandise completely waterlogged. Whilst it may not seem all that plausible, this should show you that any business is susceptible to any sort of flood and also means that the most prudent course of action is to ensure that you do not suffer from monetary losses due to such an unprecedented event taking place. Continue reading ‘The Commercial Cost of Flood Damage’ »

Nobody knows when floods happen. These are natural disasters that can just strike when we least expect it. We may live in deserts or atop a mountain and still experience flooding.

In fact, 50 states have reports of flooding. The reason behind this is that hurricanes or tropical storms are not the only causes of natural flooding. Flooding inside homes can also be due to the flash flooding and rising river water.

In layman’s terms, flooding is the combination of mud and water in an area. So if the water is not wet on a normal basis but it still combines these two elements, then there is still the possibility of flash flooding taking place. Continue reading ‘What Does Flood Insurance Cover?’ »

When considering the cost of flood insurance, first and foremost, you need to weigh its potential cost versus the potential cost of being uninsured. The discrepancy would be astronomical. Most American’s could not afford to rebuild their lives out of their own pockets if their home was destroyed by a flood. That is the purpose of flood insurance; to defer the cost of picking up the pieces after a devastating flood.

The cost of insurance varies from area to area. If you live in an area with a low risk for flooding, your insurance rates are going to be much lower than if you live in a high risk area plagued by hurricanes or flash flooding. According to many surveys, as of 2009, the cost of insurance premiums vary from less than $350 annually to upwards of $3000, depending on the predetermined flood risk in your area. While this cost may seem prohibitive to some, you need to take into consideration that you couldn’t possibly rebuild a destroyed home for anywhere near even the highest end of the flood insurance spectrum. Continue reading ‘The Cost of Flood Insurance VS The Cost of Being Uninsured’ »

With the rising cost of health insurance, many people are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their monthly premiums. Even if there are people who are in very good health and do not have major medical problems, it is still important to have health coverage. Is there a way for people to get cheap health coverage?

The way to getting cheap health coverage is to get a policy that covers most but not all of your needs. The focus of the policy is on long term medical costs like hospitalization. You will need to pay the expenses incurred during regular visits to the doctor. This may work for some individuals but not for all. Continue reading ‘Tips on Getting Cheap Health Coverage’ »

Water and fire damage restoration:

A house fire or damage from a flood or from another type of water break can be a truly traumatic experience. In the event this happens to you, one of the very first phone calls should be made to a fire and water damage restoration company. You will want to have a professional company by your side during a harrowing time such as this.

Why is it a good idea to call these companies? A water damage restoration company, along with a fire restoration company, will help with guidance on how to restore the damage done from a fire or water. Restoration companies will help you determine the damage done to not only your belongings, but also to large items such as furniture, electronics, carpets, flooring, walls and ceilings. You may have to contact two separate companies if you have damage from both fire and water, but you may find that there are companies that do both. Continue reading ‘Water Damage’ »

Following the tragic events in New Orleans due to the havoc and water damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Sacramento has been singled out as the next city in America’s that is most likely to be hit by floods. California state reports have recently shown that an untimely combination of bad weather and ever-weakening flood control structures will most probably put Sacramento under 20 feet of water – a grim scenario that residents of Sacramento will not want to see come to pass.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Californias levees in February 2006. He executed Executive Order S-01-06 directing agencies to identify, evaluate and repair critical systems. As a result, some critical erosion sites were repaired in 2006, but the underlying structural problem for the Sacramento region and the state remains. Continue reading ‘Is Sacramento Next in Line For Flooding?’ »

When considering flood insurance, you may try to convince yourself that you live in an area where flooding is not a possibility. The reality is that flooding is possible anywhere. Of course to understand why this is, you first have to understand what a flood is. For example, did you know that a mudslide is considered a flood and in order to be compensated for mudslide-related damage you would be required to make a claim against your flood policy, not your homeowner’s policy? Water damage of any depth is considered a flood. This means that any damage caused to your home by things like a broken water hose from a dishwasher, a main breaking, or even someone’s sprinkler system going haywire would all be considered flood damage. Without a comprehensive flood insurance policy, you could very easily find yourself overwhelmed by the cost of repairing water or mud related damage to your home.

Another thing to consider is that some of the most devastating floods in recent history have occurred in areas that are not considered flood planes or at high risk for flooding. Hurricane Katrina is a perfect example as tens of thousands of people who had their homes destroyed by the storm have been unable to rebuild because they didn’t have flood insurance coverage. Simple and relatively inexpensive flood insurance could have mitigated the damages for thousands of people, if only policies had been in effect at the time of the storm. Continue reading ‘What is a Flood Anyway?’ »

Damage from a flood is NOT covered on your home insurance policy!

Facts about floods:

- Floods and flash floods are the most common natural disaster, occurring in all fifty states
- One third of all flood insurance claims are generated outside areas considered flood-prone.
- Just a couple inches of water can do thousands of dollars of damage to a home
- One in five adults were not sure whether flood damage was covered in their standard homeowners policy
- You do not have to live near water to suffer a flood loss
- Floods can be caused by many things such as heavy rain, melting snow, inadequate or overloaded drainage systems, dam or levee failure, hurricanes and more.
- Every year, flooding causes more then $2 billion of property damage in the U.S.
- Everyone lives in a flood zone
- Your home has a 26% chance of flooding as opposed to the 9% chance of fire during the course of a typical 30 year mortgage
- A flood is defined by FEMA as – A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or of two or more properties (at least one of which is your property) from:

- Overflow of inland or tidal waters,
- Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source, or
- A mudflow ; defined as A river of liquid and flowing mud on the surfaces of normally dry land areas, as when earth is carried by a current of water or
- The collapse or subsidence of land along the shore or a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood as defined above. Continue reading ‘Facts About Flood Insurance and What You Need to Know in 2009’ »